And while it probably goes without saying that at least a few still fetch coffee for the higher-ups, a fair number of administrative and executive assistants would probably look askance at a boss who asked them to stop answering phones, planning for meetings and dealing with the time-consuming minutiae of keeping an office functioning to do a personal task like that.

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Workers who are accepted into ePOD are only allowed to check their Ford e-mail, as well as their personal calendars, contacts and task lists from their personally-owned devices, on or off Ford campus.

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And her personal history won't make that task any easier.

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Their persistence in following through with the difficult task speaks to the value of creating personal relationships with suppliers, and how local manufacturing lends itself to those kinds of relationships.

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They would farm the task out to thousands of owners of personal computers by sending them chunks of data from radio telescopes, along with the software needed to look for intelligent signals.

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There is no market segment better placed to help consumers design their personal brands than Micro entrepreneurs, who already perform that same task for many big businesses.

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At Citi Holdings, Corbat had the thankless task of trying to stem the losses from billions of dollars in unsecured personal loans and other unwise investments while simultaneously trying to negotiate the best price possible for them in a sale.

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